It was an era of steel strings, guitar heroes, storytellers and rebellion. Outlaw country music, the hallmark of Nashville’s powerful and angry music scene of the 1970s, was the brew of greats such as Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Townes Van Zandt.
But there is another, little-known musician of that era: Daniel Antopolsky. The son of immigrants who settled in the South and ran a hardware store in Augusta, Georgia, Antopolsky fled the U.S. music scene for a tranquil life on a farm in Bordeaux, France.
Over the last 40 years, he has written nearly 500 songs. Now, for the first time, his music will be shared with the world through a new documentary called “The Sheriff of Mars” and a music album, the latter produced in conjunction with some of country music’s finest players and by award-winning producer Gary Gold.
“There was a lost piece of history in this amazing musician who decided to disappear,” says documentary co-director and producer Jason Ressler. “This mysterious Daniel — no one knew what happened to him.”
Ressler met Antopolsky by chance when he was introduced to him by a mutual friend in Tel Aviv, where Antopolsky’s daughter lives with her boyfriend. Traveling between Bor-deaux, the United States and Israel, Ressler ended up forging a friendship with the 66-year-old farmer. It was a year before he realized Antopolsky’s talent.
“He’s country, but he’s optimistic,” says Ressler. “These are some of the best songs I have ever heard.”
Slowly, Antopolsky’s story began to unfold. He graduated from college in the early ’70s and was influenced by the times: drinking and drugs, talk of revolution. One day, Van Zandt came to Athens, Georgia, and Antopolsky went to hear him play. After the show, Antopolsky introduced himself.
“They hit it off, and Townes invited him to come traveling with him,” says Al Low, who has known Antopolsky since they were in their teens. Antopolsky spent the next several years jamming across the country with Van Zandt.
But Antopolsky fled the outlaw country music scene after reportedly saving Van Zandt’s life in Houston following an overdose on heroin. The incident left Antopolsky shaken, Low says.
“I was just a young, wild hippie,” says Antopolsky, who was never into heavy drugs. “I lost my parents when I was very young, but I understood from my youth about World War II veterans, about the Holocaust and the Iron Curtain. And about Israel; I love Israel. No, I was never really radical or protesting. I always loved America.”
Music, he continues “has sort of an elevated place, but it is also a place to do harm. People can have a lot of hatred in songs. … What inspires my songs is to find what is good.”
Ultimately, Antopolsky was in search of spirituality and traveled around the world to find it before returning to his Jewish faith. He married and moved to his wife’s native France. Today, on his farm, he ventures into the fields like a modern-day Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav. “I just speak to the Creator, make a relationship,” he says.
Sharing his tunes and his story with the world is for Antopolsky humbling and at times uncomfortable. But Ressler is confident that when the world hears Antopolsky, there will be no going back.